Forum:Rebuttals to "A day in the life of Joe Republican"
The following is a short essay by John Gray of Cincinnati, Ohio entitled A day in the life of Joe Republican interspersed with rebuttals to various points made by the author. The Democrats like to tout this essay as a shining example of how our lives are taken care of by the government, and that only the Democrats care enough to take care of us. However, the rebuttals almost add more facts and balance to the story. The truth is, both parties only care about their power and the almighty tax dollars. We need to stop letting an over-reaching government into our hearts and homes. :The italicized portions below are quoted from John Gray's essay. As quotes, these portions should only be edited if it is determined that they are misquoting the original essay. The indented portions are rebuttals, and may be edited by anyone in accordance with the 1POV policy. A day in the life of Joe Republican *** Joe gets up at 6 a.m. and fills his coffeepot with water to prepare his morning coffee. The water is clean and good because some tree-hugging liberal fought for minimum water-quality standards. :And those water filters he has on the water line coming into his house and on the end of his faucet have absolutely nothing to do with that. :Those water filters breed bacteria. Is Joe's healthcare up to date? :But I don't really understand why those filters exist, so take this one with a grain of salt. With his first swallow of coffee, he takes his daily medication. His medications are safe to take because some stupid commie liberal fought to insure their safety and that they work as advertised. :Actually, that was the Pure Food & Drug act of 1906, which "was much an attempt by businesses to improve revenue as it was the product of a public outcry against fraudulent practices." Signed by Teddy Roosevelt. :And actually it is the FDA which ensures that your medicines are safe, not to mention the NIH and NSF which fund research to find cures for diseases and the CDC which warns of spreading epidemics. :However, Roosevelt LEFT the republican party, to persue more progressive politics so this is really more Roosevelt's work than republican's work as Republicans at the time were gradually shifting into the conservative party known today, and Roosevelt abhorred that. Thus they had nothing to do with this. He did. All but $10 of his medications are paid for by his employer's medical plan because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical insurance - now Joe gets it too. Businesses included Medical Insurance in the fringe benefit package that they added to wages to attract workers during WWII because wage and price freezes prevented them from increasing wages. Which is not a great deal since if you get really ill, you cannot work and then bye-bye insurance. Joe only wants the same health care his elected offficials in Washington have, single payer. Of course liberals want that too. But don't tell Joe that. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and eggs. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some girly-man liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry. :Ah, the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. Signed by that trust-busting, pro Sherman Antitrust Act , pro-Union Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, as part of that "Big Government"Square Deal . :Joe learned the hard way that when the big government wasn't watching out for cattle in the UK, many people died of Mad Cow Disease including his second cousin twice removed. Burgers anyone? :Of course, Roosevelt has been established is the penultimate anti-republican, is dead now, and no republican alive has come close to his progressiveness. Which is why the rebuttles need to dig so far back in history to find a "good one". There are no examples breathing today. In the morning shower, Joe reaches for his shampoo. His bottle is properly labeled with each ingredient and its amount in the total contents because some crybaby liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his body and how much it contained. :Again, Pure Food & Drug Act of 1906. See above. Not to mention his minoxidil and viagra prescriptions. :All due to the guy that left the republicans and started the progressive party. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep breath. The air he breathes is clean because some environmentalist wacko liberal fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. :And some engineers came up with the technology to allow these industries to pollute less after guidelines enforced by the EPA. This is why modern factories produce as much as they have in the past while generating far less pollution. :Which of course, republicans find loopholes around and pass laws to pollute twice as much anyway. He walks to the subway station for his government-subsidized ride to work. It saves him considerable money in parking and transportation fees because some fancy-pants liberal fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the opportunity to be a contributor. Joe begins his work day. He has a good job with excellent pay, medical benefits retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some lazy liberal union members fought and died for these working standards. :Joe also knows that he could just as easily quit his job and go work for a competitor if his employer starts skimping on benefits. Joe's employer also knows this. :But seeing as in many situations this is hardly realistic and many bosses know millions will easily take Joe's place for less. That's hardly effective. Joe's employer pays these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call the union. :(Joe is part of the 87% of American workers who do not belong to a Union.) That is why he hasn't seen his standard of living rise in the last 20 years and like other men his age now needs to send his wife out to work. :Joe is married now to make this argument. He also sends his kids to work. Yeah... his kids. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed, he'll get a worker compensation or unemployment check because some stupid liberal didn't think he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune. :IF Joe is smart enough, and earns enough of an income,(a big if since Joe most likely has not graduated high school) to purchase additional disability insurance (which would be covered if he had a union job) and a life insurance policy. He also has six months of savings in savings accounts and a short-term CD at the bank (at .9% interest), something that he knows that many of his friends have been unable to do. So if anything happens to him, his family will be taken care of. Good luck with that 0.9% CD which does not even keep up with inflation. Too bad Joe did not go to public school where he would have learned about things like this. :Then again, the argument "if Joe was smart enough...." could be followed by damn near anything. Its noontime and Joe needs to make a bank deposit so he can pay some bills. Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FDIC because some godless liberal wanted to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking system before the Great Depression. : Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae-underwritten mortgage and his below-market federal student loan because some elitist liberal decided that Joe and the government would be better off if he was educated and earned more money over his lifetime. :Technically, both Fannie Mae and Sallie Mae are independent of the government, and manage to be consistently profitable without direct taxpayer subsidies. :That however does not stop them from buying their way into said government. Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive. His car is among the safest in the world because some America-hating liberal fought for car safety standards. :Standards which never would have ever been adopted unless consumer advocates and consumers demanded them, engineers invented them as a result of that demand and auto insurance companies figured out they saved money on payouts by following the law. :So thank you liberal consumer advocates. He arrives at his boyhood home. His was the third generation to live in the house financed by Farmers' Home Administration because bankers didn't want to make rural loans. :The house was also added on to three times since its original construction. None of those additions was paid for with loans; instead, Joe's dad and his whole family pitched in with the construction to get it done faster, and at a fraction of the cost. Too bad they did not pay attention to the building codes. Now when Joe wants to sell his house, he will have to hire professionals who know something to redo the work and attract a buyer. :Which makes sense. The house didn't have electricity until some big-government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and demanded rural electrification. :And it was those same power companies that took the government loans, (not grants) and actually built the lines in the 1930's and 40's. In fact, a few years ago the area's power lines were replaced with undergound service lines, which are much more reliable. Demand for this came because there are new housing developments in the area, spurred by a new manufacturing plant. No federal loans were needed,only subsidies in the form of tax breaks. Yes, his government at work for Joe. :But I'm really splitting hairs now. He is happy to see his father, who is now retired. His father lives on Social Security and a union pension because some wine-drinking, cheese-eating liberal made sure he could take care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to. :Joe's dad, like his son, was also smart enough to save as much as he could. So now, in addition to his house, Joe's dad also has substantial, diversified investments (stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals, and CD's) in his privately run 401(k) also a program created by the government to help out the investment industry - and of course Joe Jr. too. Of course, Joe's dad also grumbles about having to pay way too much for estate planning so that he can leave his life's work and savings to his children without having Uncle Sam come and take his bite. :Joe also has a wicked collection of classic rock 45's. Joe gets back in his car for the ride home, and turns on a radio talk show. The radio host keeps saying that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. He doesn't mention that the beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day. :Joe doesn't really care about Republican or Democrat or conservative or liberal. He knows that having the government take care of you from cradle to grave is an impossible dream. Instead, Joe has learned to take care of himself and his family, outside, over, above and beyond anything the government can provide for him, and only depends on Government when things get out of reach and beyond his financial resources. Joe could never take care of himself since he does not live in the wild west. Joe does relies on the government and his community to take care of the basics described here that he could never do on his own. But Joe is not bright enough to understand this and would rather believe in Republican propaganda. :Take it from me, I know Joe personally, we hang out and are on the same fantasy fooball league. Joe agrees: "We don't need those big-government liberals ruining our lives! After all, I'm a self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have." :And then Joe gets home to a nice surprise: his tax refund check. It's going straight into Joseph Jr.'s college fund. Saving money this way is something his Grandfather taught him. Joe's Grandfather was a member of the Greatest Generation, and they learned a lot of how to survive during the lean times. Joe listened closely to those lessons while he was growing up. The greatest generation created all the infrastructure that we now enjoy and which under the Republican party running things since the 1980s, starting wars that we have to pay for, instead of maintaining the inheritance the "Greatest Generation" bequeathed to us. :Then Joe hops in his rocket car fueled by children's tears and cruises through the ghetto to laugh at poor black people. Because Joe is a conservative republican.